Desperate Times
by martha1
Summary: Not even when they go shopping can Harry and Draco escape unseen and terrible dangers...first story ever, so please R&R!


Author : Martha  
  
Disclaimer : None of these characters belong to me, of course, because if they did, there would've been some very different couples...I'm not making any money out of them either, although I could very well use it...  
  
Rating : PG-13, for using the f-word once, out of creative necessity, and a plot involving stealing children...*hits head against bed post and cries bitterly out of remorse* Somehow whenever I'm behind a computer these kind of stories come out...I can't help it!  
  
Pairing : Harry/Draco. Yes, that means slash, albeit of the innocent and fluffy kind. If you don't like it, there's a neat little button in the top left corner of your screen, press once and your soul is saved.  
  
Summary : Not even when they go shopping can Harry and Draco escape unseen and terrible dangers...  
  
Desperate Times  
  
It was the third day in a row of extremely sunny days and a dozen sunrays found their way through the window of a small appartment on the corner of a busy street. Despite the early hour, the street was bustling and packed with swiftly moving people in cars, on bikes, running on the pavement and even an individual on a scooter, following his own path through the wilderness that was called 'the morning rush hour'. Angry drivers were honking and a businesswoman rattled excitedly on and on in her mobile phone, which caused at least half a dozen other drivers to honk too, since she was standing in the middle of the road.  
  
Things couldn't have been different from the absolute silence in the small appartment. If anyone would've been bold enough to climb through that very same window, the first thing he or she would've seen was a very chaotic bed room, a bed with crumpled sheets, dirty laundry tossed away in one corner of the room and a dozen books stacked up against the walls.  
  
If anyone would continue this little quest, he would find a narrow hallway, the walls covered with photo's of a happy couple, a happy couple clothed in thick sweaters in a background filled with snowy mountains, a happy couple on a bench in the sun, one half of the happy couple pulling the other one down in the grass...until the hallway ended in a spacious and well-lit living room. In the middle of the room, between stacks of books and magazines, the aforementioned happy couple was having breakfast.  
  
With a mouthful of bread, Harry asked Draco Malfoy, who was, as always sitting opposite him : "So, what do you want to do today?"  
  
As always, Draco frowned his (perfect) eyebrows over the eating habits of his partner, but his eyes softened when he saw the hopeful look Harry was shooting him from under his fringe.  
  
"Yes," he answered, his tone indulgent, "We can go to the supermarket today."  
  
Harry smiled happily and started buttering his third slice of bread, while Draco poured himself another cup of coffee and looked at him endearingly.  
  
Ever since they had become friends in the fifth year, he had often said that Harry's metabolism was the eight miracle of the world, and watching Harry stuff his face in his typical and not at all elegant way just reminded him of those days at Hogwarts. Unlike him, Harry was always hungry, but no matter how much he ate, he never gained as much as an ounce. He grew more muscles, but he never grew fat. If they were to go somewhere together, Harry would always bring enough food for at least 10 persons, but at the end of the day it would all be gone. Harry's enormous appetite was one of the many things Draco loved about him. As strange as it may sound, the supermarket was for Harry, what the mall was for Draco. And so they went to the local supermarket.  
  
~~~~~  
  
Draco tried to park their car on an absolutely loaded parking lot and eventually tried his luck in the parking garage, while Harry searched for a shopping trolley and when Draco finally arrived at the entrance, he found his boyfriend there, impatiently tapping his foot in a way which Draco found very irritating. It reminded him too much of professor McGonagall, and strangely, his father.  
  
"I couldn't find a decent spot!" he said defensively and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.  
  
"Mmm.." Harry muttered, but he couldn't stop the smile from spreading over his face,  
  
"Don't let it happen again!"  
  
"Of course not, sweetheart," Draco promised sugary and he chuckled when he saw an elderly couple look at them suspiciously. Harry must have seen the looks they gave them too, because he suddenly released the trolley, grabbed Draco by the shoulders and with a loud : "I forgive you, darling!" he kissed him right on the mouth.  
  
As always Draco forgot everything and everyone when Harry kissed him, and even though it happened very unexpectedly he was thoroughly enjoying it. At last, after what he thought was an era, but lasted in fact only a few moments, he felt Harry grin against his mouth and pull away. The couple looked shocked to the bone and started whispering to eachother, unquestionably all kinds of remarks about the scandalousness of 'some people'.  
  
"Come on, let's shop!" With these words Harry pulled Draco by his hand past the perplexed couple and into the store, trolley dangling from his other hand.  
  
"You know, you're truly..." Draco began, once they were into the supermarket.  
  
"Delicious?" Harry added and started throwing food from different shelves into the trolley.  
  
"Disturbed," Draco finished, but the tiniest hitch in his voice betrayed the laughter he was trying to hide.  
  
He just couldn't stay angry with Harry, no matter how much he tried. Harry seemed to enjoy giving away performances like that, wherever they went. The first few times Draco had been embarrassed and even angry, until Harry had explained to him in his outspoken way that he was just so happy with him that he couldn't help himself.  
  
"Plus, " he had added with a mischievous smile, "I have to mark my territory, right?"  
  
"Right, " Draco had growled and unexpectedly pulled Harry with him on the couch for an attack of tickling, which lasted at least half an hour, and left them both red and panting from exhaustion and laughter.  
  
"Hello? Anyone in? "  
  
When Draco's eyes had refocused again he saw Harry standing in front of him, a confused and concerned look on his face.  
  
"Where were you? I thought you were going to faint right here any moment, " he asked. Throwing a look at the white tiles beneath them he added rather dreamily "Then I would've had to catch you of course..."  
  
"Yeah right!" Draco scoffed and looked at the trolley, which was getting more packed with the minute.  
  
"Would you have done that before or after the trolley had burst?"  
  
"During?" Harry tried, but before Draco could comment on that, Harry's eyes grew the size of saucers and with a choked cry he practically threw himself behind a shelf with washing detergents and toilet paper.  
  
"What?" Draco asked concerned, and from behind the shelf Harry whispered frantically : "Ron! And Hermione! Near the vegetables!"  
  
Draco turned around abrubtly and indeed, there by the vegetables, busy picking out cucumbers, were Mr and Mrs Weasley. Just their luck...  
  
"Shit, " he muttered under his breath, but when he turned around to ask Harry what they were going to do, he found that Harry had left without any warning of any indication of where he was going. As inconspicuously as he could he tried to find the familiar figure between the many aisles, but Harry was nowhere in sight. Perfect. Absolutely fucking perfect!  
  
Harry could face Voldemort without hesitating or flinching one bit, but meeting his old friend Ron in a crowded supermarket was unbearable? Just because Harry had his boyfriend with him?  
  
Once or twice Draco had asked Harry if he had told Ron about them, but the highly vague answers had told him exactly where they stood. Right in the middle of the land of Oblivion, just left to Avoidance. Draco would of course rather attempt to subdue a Hippogriff with his bare hands than tell the Weasley the news that would inevitably lead to a tremendous row and them never speaking to Harry again. But now he wished more than ever that Harry had told them. At least there would've been two of them here, at this very moment, about to meet the scorn of his (former) archenemies. He wasn't even sure if he could still take The Weasel after all these years.  
  
Pff, he sneered mentally, if anyone could hear me now! Draco Malfoy, 'damsel' in distress, waiting for the mighty and powerful hero Harry Potter, to save him!  
  
In the meantime, Ron and Hermione approached him, while he tried to keep his back to them by thoughtlessly rummaging through the shelf in front of him.  
  
"Well well, if it isn't Malfoy, " he suddenly heard behid him and he turned around slowly, an affable smile on his handsome face.  
  
"Oh, hello!" he greeted breezily and took in his school foes from top to toe. Married life had certainly agreed with them. Since they had left school, Ron had grown at least two sizes and not lengthwise and considering the impressive circumference of Hermione's stomach, the Burrow 2 would soon be welcoming a new inhabitant. Nothing had changed though in the way they looked, or rather glared, at him.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Ron asked, putting emphasis on nearly every word, almost as if he had found Draco in his bedroom, in the middle of the night, doing God knows what.  
  
"Um...shopping?" Draco tried to say matter-of-factly, but it came out just a tad too sarcastic.  
  
Ron's eyes narrowed, but before he could say anything, Hermione intervened. "Is this a way to get to Harry?" she asked sharply, fastening him with an icy glare.  
  
"What?" Draco choked. He'd expected everything but this. Personal insults he could handle just fine, due to the extensive experience he had gained at school, but where in Heaven's name were they going with this?  
  
Hermione must have mistaken the confused look on his face, because he added : "Harry does his shopping here all the time," all the while adopting a superior tone, which Draco hated.  
  
"Oh..." he answered, trying to keep his own tone friendly and breezy. He was not, repeat not, going to let them get the better of him by making him angry. He could handle this in a civilised manner...right?  
  
"I didn't know that -"  
  
"Do you like porridge?" Hermione interrupted and without thinking Draco blurted out : "God no, I hate that stuff!"  
  
"Then why is it in your trolley?" it sounded accusingly from where Ron was standing and before Draco had a chance to cover up his mistake, Ron's wandering eyes had found another article in his trolley.  
  
"Ha! Asparagus!" he cried out triomphantly and pointed a freckled finger at the meant vegetable which Harry had grabbed in an unguarded moment.  
  
"Wow, I'm impressed! You've finally learned all the names of the vegetables! " Draco sneered, cursing Harry for the second time, for trying to buy those dreadful things, he knew how much Draco hated asparagus.  
  
"Does this mean he gets another cookie tonight?" he asked Hermione, but she didn't answer, in fact, it seemed as though she hadn't even heard the question at all. Instead she was staring at him in a strange and rather unnerving way, Draco thought.  
  
"Asparagus are Harry's favourite vegetable," she said slowly and thoughtfully. "In fact, all the things here are things Harry likes to eat. What's your plan, Malfoy? Are you trying to screw with Harry?"  
  
The rational part of Draco's mind immediately went blank and to his horror images began to float in front of his eyes, images which he could absolutely not use at this moment, memories of his life which were inevitably evoked whenever he heard 'Harry' and 'screwing' in the same sentence. Trying to surpress the disturbing and highly vivid pictures and the matching physical reaction, all he could do was splutter in indignation to this absurd and yet so true allegation.  
  
Way to go, Draco, he thought bitterly. Drown them in spit, that'll get you out off this mess!  
  
A deafening silence fell after the sputtering had died out, in which both Ron and Hermione fixed their hapless victim with murderous and at the same time expecting stares.  
  
After ten seconds of being looked at like he was the village idiot and thief in one person, Draco couldn't take it anymore and decided to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but before he could start talking, a metallic voice, a true 'sonorus ex machina' resounded through the supermarket : "Mr and Mrs Weasley, please go to the Lost and Found unit! Mr and Mrs Weasley to the Lost and Found!"  
  
"Harry..." Draco breathed, feeling more relieved than ever, as Ron and Hermione walked away, after having glared at him one last time.  
  
He didn't notice though how Hermione's posture stiffened slightly and how she cocked her head to one side, as if she was listening intently to something, before shrugging and following her husband, who was grumbling and asking himself loudly what they could've possibly lost. Nor did he see the small smile that formed upon her lips and her elated expression, as if she finally understood something that had been bugging her for weeks.  
  
Draco tried to keep a smile of relieve off his face, but when Harry reappeared a minute later, wearing the same kind of smile, he couldn't contain himself.  
  
"What did you do?" he tried to ask angrily, but he couldn't stop himself grinning like a lunatic. Must be because of the nerves, he thought. Harry was having the same problem, but he was simultanuously cramming the last few things they needed in the trolley.  
  
"I'll tell you at home..." he responded vaguely and started pushing the trolley to the check-out point. They left the supermarket without any more problems..  
  
~~~~~~  
  
That night, after a very large meal, they lay on the couch together, Harry's back against Draco's chest, the first playing idly with the fingers of the latter, when Draco suddenly blurted out : "What in Heaven's name did you do? Not that I wasn't happy with it," he continued hastily, lest Harry should get the idea he was angry, "I was about to tell them everything!"  
  
He shuddered to think what would've happened if he had.  
  
"What?" Harry turned around, placing his head on Draco's chest, and looked up into his face.  
  
"You really would've done that?"  
  
"I don't know..." Draco pondered, "It has to happen some day."  
  
"I know..." Harry muttered and dropped his head, his cheek still touching Draco's shirt, to play with his cuff.  
  
"But what did you do?" Draco insisted and he felt rather than heard Harry grin, which sent his heart rate even more in a frenzy.  
  
"Nothing! I just drew the attention to the fact that Mr and Mrs Weasley had accidently left their pram at the Meat Products," he said innocently, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.  
  
"But they haven't got - " Draco started, when it hit him like a bolt of lightning. "Oh my God! You nicked someone else's baby?!"  
  
Harry's choked laughter was all the answer he needed.  
  
His eyes wide, he gazed dumbfounded at his boyfriend, who was trying to look as innocent and ignorant as possible.  
  
"What? Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm sure they sorted it out just fine."  
  
Despite his indignation and shock Draco couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Harry, poster boy for Gryffindor honesty and bravery, first ducking away behind shelves for fear meeting an old friend, and then downright stealing and lying his way to 'freedom'.  
  
There must be a little bit of Slytherin in him after all, he thought lovingly and sighed : "Harry, you know, you're truly..."  
  
"Disturbed?" came a response from the head at his chest.  
  
"Delicious!" Draco finished with a ravishing smile and proceeded to kiss Harry within an inch of his life.  
  
~ End ~ 


End file.
